A working definition for HCI specific emotion research

Current theories from psychology on emotions can be grouped into theories that focus on the biology of how emotions arise and how they are experienced, theories about how they affect thought action repertoires and physiological patterns, and theories focusing on how observed emotions could be categorised or structured. This list is not exclusive but provides a range of active emotion research. Other models, like OCC, take a descriptive, appraisalbased approach but neglect some fundamental principles underlying emotions, which are necessary to react sensibly to a detected emotion. The need for specific emotion theories in designing and studying human computer interactions depends on the goals of the specific application or task. This paper suggests that an HCI specific working definition could make the relationships between the models clear so that a complex artificial system can operate effectively and efficiently. The working definition should be flexible enough to accommodate future ideas but should set parameters for how to define the relationships so that work on an individual part could be used in large scale applications.